"We all come from blood and saltwater and a screaming mother begging us to leave." Given what we know about the origins of the species, and the rarity of even the most enthusiastic birthing mother looking to prolong the miraculous but less-than-relaxing process, this is a pretty...

NEW YORK — Old-school bars are now a rarity around Times Square, squeezed out by chain hotels and video boards. But Jimmy's Corner, a boxing-themed dive bar on West 44th Street, has somehow survived. At one end of the bar in that crammed joint on a recent night stood Taylor Hackford, best...

Showcase

Actors Evan Rachel Wood and Michael Thomas Grant chatted with theater critic Chris Jones last week about "For The Record: Dear John Hughes," a theatrical concert in which they both starred at the Broadway Playhouse.

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, creator of the television series “Designing Women” and book writer of the new musical comedy “First Wives Club,” chatted with theater critic Chris Jones last week about the new show, currently running in Chicago.

The smart money says comedian Amy Schumer will be a full-blown film sensation come summer. She wrote and stars in the highly anticipated movie "Trainwreck," the Judd Apatow-directed comedy that opens in July.

Dance

Jennifer Yonally, Kirsten Uttich, Mark Yonally and Sioned Papparotto. Chicago Tap Theatre presents the world premiere of "TightWire," written by Marc Kelly Smith and original music by Kurt Schewitz, playing at Stage 773. - Original Credit: Josh Hawkins photo

Jennifer Yonally, Kirsten Uttich, Mark Yonally and Sioned Papparotto. Chicago Tap Theatre presents the world premiere of "TightWire," written by Marc Kelly Smith and original music by Kurt Schewitz, playing at Stage 773. - Original Credit: Josh Hawkins photo (HANDOUT)

"TightWire" opens promisingly. A smoky, sepia-toned stage emerges from the darkness, and we hear the chugging of cleat-clad feet offstage, re-creating the rhythms of an approaching train. Then the dancers appear in a single-file line, led by the commanding Rich Ashworth, a headlight beaming...

Herding cats: Now there's a skill politicians could use today. Lyndon Baines Johnson, our folksy dictator-president of the '60s, had it by the ton, alternately muscling and charming his victim-cohorts into obedience, passing the legislation he wanted, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Auditorium Theatre announced its 2015-16 season on Thursday. Of particular note is the previously announced Twyla Tharp 50th Anniversary Tour, which will incude two new works by the renowned choreographer.

Personal history, family lore, myth, rumor and imagination went into the making of "Hep Hep Sweet Sweet," says choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. "It's about my family's migration from Texas to Kansas City," she says, as part of African-Americans' Great Migration. "My mother was a jazz...

Broadway

"The shrewdly styled and rapidly paced show turns out to be an ideal vehicle for Chenoweth, who plays an actress turned movie star. When you add Chenoweth's vocal chops and the star's willingness to be challenged, you really have the central performance you need. --Chris Jones

"The shrewdly styled and rapidly paced show turns out to be an ideal vehicle for Chenoweth, who plays an actress turned movie star. When you add Chenoweth's vocal chops and the star's willingness to be challenged, you really have the central performance you need. --Chris Jones (Joan Marcus photo)

"Aside from giving the redoubtable Helen Mirren another chance to essay Queen Elizabeth II, Peter Morgan's "The Audience" succeeds because it intuits the heavy price a monarch must pay in a constitutional democracy." --Chris Jones

"Aside from giving the redoubtable Helen Mirren another chance to essay Queen Elizabeth II, Peter Morgan's "The Audience" succeeds because it intuits the heavy price a monarch must pay in a constitutional democracy." --Chris Jones (Joan Marcus / AP)

"It is hard to think of a single revival of any musical that has achieved such fusion with the popular perception of the material. Sam Mendes' "Cabaret" was, and is, a brilliantly inventive and revealing conception. Then and now." --Chris Jones

"It is hard to think of a single revival of any musical that has achieved such fusion with the popular perception of the material. Sam Mendes' "Cabaret" was, and is, a brilliantly inventive and revealing conception. Then and now." --Chris Jones (Joan Marcus)

"This is a beautiful, resonant theatrical experience that fits easily into one of Broadway's most dominant themes over the years ¿ the celebration of those who, to quote lyricist Jerry Herman, are able to see things from a different angle." --Chris Jones

"This is a beautiful, resonant theatrical experience that fits easily into one of Broadway's most dominant themes over the years ¿ the celebration of those who, to quote lyricist Jerry Herman, are able to see things from a different angle." --Chris Jones (Joan Marcus)

Do you want to buy tickets to a Broadway show, but don't know 'Kinky Boots' from Lover's Lane? Did someone at a party tell you 'Wicked' is actually the long-awaited sequel to 'Gone Girl'? Look no further. Here are 10 Tribune Broadway recommendations.

NEW YORK — You can't get from New York to Chicago by train in 16 hours anymore. And you could argue that musical theater has been similarly immune from progress since the 1930s, when the plays by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur and Charles Bruce Millholland that inspired this 1978 musical...

NEW YORK — Baby boomer Heidi Holland, the angst-ridden, art historian heroine of the justly beloved Wendy Wasserstein play from 1988 that bears her name, would now be about 66 years old if the carefully charted chronology of "The Heidi Chronicles" is extrapolated into current reality....

Aside from giving the redoubtable Helen Mirren another chance to essay Queen Elizabeth II — a necessarily reclusive character with whom this actress is now so closely allied that the two verge on a coalition, with Mirren doing all the talking — Peter Morgan's "The Audience" succeeds...